NTSE now for Class 10 Changes in NTSE

From this year the NCERT will conduct the National Talent Search Examination for students studying in Class 10th only.

1. No. of Scholarships: On the basis of the examination conducted, 1000 scholarships will be awarded for group of students appearing for Class 10th, in all over India.

2. Reservation: 15 % scholarships will be reserved for students belonging to the SC category, 7.5% scholarships for students belonging to the ST category. 

3. Scholarship: Awardees of NTS Examination will receive a sum of Rs. 500/- per month as per NCERT rules.

4. Selection: There will be two-stage selection process for award of scholarship.

(a) Stage – I, selection will be done by States / UTs through a written examination. Students who qualify Stage I will be eligible

(b) Stage II examination conducted by NCERT.

5. Important Dates : Dates of submission of Applications Forms and Conduct of examination are given below :

Stage : Stage I (State) 

Area : Last Date for Submission of Application Form 

Examinations date in Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and 

Andaman and Nicobar Islands : 17th November 2012

Examination date in All other states and Union Territories : 18th November 2012 (Sunday)

Examination date in All States and Union Territories

12th May 2013 (Sunday)

6. Eligibility: Students of Class 10th studying in recognized schools are eligible to appear for the respective Class 10th Stage I examination conducted by the State/UTs in which the schools are located. There will be no domicile restriction.

7. Examination : The pattern of written examination for Class 10th will be as follows :-

• Stage I examination at the State/UT level will comprise two parts, namely (a) Mental Ability Test (MAT) and (b) Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) covering social sciences, sciences and mathematics.

• Stage II examination at the National Level will comprises

(a) Mental Ability Test (MAT) 90 Marks.

(b) Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) covering social sciences (35 Marks), sciences (35 marks) and Mathematics (20 marks).

When does one start preparation?

The earlier one starts the preparation the better are his chances. The ideal time to start is within one month of completing one’s board examination. However, even one year of concentrated effort can help student achieve success – however, student’s commitment needs to be high in this case.

If you are attending school as well as preparing for Competitive Exam, and if you have 2 years with you, then you must devote 2 to 3 hours every working day for studies and 10 to 12 hours on school holidays and weekends. Whereas if you start preparing in Class XII you should spend 3 to 5 hours everyday preparing for Competitive Exams.

Is coaching necessary ?

For success in Competitive Exams, 80% of the contribution is from the student’s effort, 10% is from the strategy of how to derive maximum out of the knowledge the student has and 10% is from guidance. Here the important thing to note is that however strategy & guidance contribute only 20% but are very important because it is this 20% which decides & defines how the balance 80% of time & energy is going to be spend. In case proper guidance is available to a student at home or at school, there will be no need for coaching; however, in absence of that coaching is advisable.

  

My future will be ruined if I fail/don’t get good marks

Examinations are an important way in which professional colleges select students. Success in them does open doors to particular jobs and careers. Lack of success will mean certain jobs and careers are not immediately open to you, at least at the level of entry you originally intended. Some may be closed altogether. However, happiness, wealth, peace of mind, rich experience of life, meaningful status in the eyes of others, a worthwhile career, a useful job and an inner sense of purpose and self belief as a human being, do not depend upon examination results.

Amazing Power of Super Conscious Mind

The beauty of your superconscious mind lies in the application toward your goals.

You have it. I have it. Everyone you know has it. What is it? It’s this infinite, universal, subconscious and powerful gift we’re blessed with.

Most experts call it the “super-subconscious mind,” (higher level of thinking) although whatever you choose to call it, it is as available to you at this very instant as it has been to anyone, anywhere!

The origin of all creativity comes from the superconscious mind. The superconscious mind was used by all of the great inventors, writers, artists, business people, scientists and composers on a regular basis.

Michaelangelo was known to have said that he would see his completed sculpture in the block of marble before he began chiseling away at it. He simply needed to chip around his vision.

The beauty of your superconscious mind lies in the application toward your goals. When you are striving and working toward a goal of your own choosing, your superconscious mind will provide you the continuous flow of ideas and positive energy to help you move closer to your goal. KEY POINT: Your superconscious mind functions best when you have a confident and calm mindset. Your subconscious mind automatically and continually solves every problem on the way to your goal as long as your goal is clear, concise and you believe in it fully.

REMEMBER THIS: When you get a hunch or an inspiration about the direction of your goal you must act on it immediately. This is when your superconscious mind is speaking to you, based on the time-dated material you entered at an earlier time. You see, when you adopt an attitude of calmness and confidence about your goals everything that happens to you can only bring you closer to your goal, your dream!

The truth is, “You become what you think about.” Emerson wrote, “A person becomes what he thinks about most of the time.” KEY POINT: Successful people think and talk about what they want. Unsuccessful people talk about what they don’t want. The superconscious mind is so powerful that it is working all the time and you will get what you think about most of the time!!

“Whether you think you can do something or think you can’t, you’re right!” 

What are the critical success factor for cracking entrance examinations?

The entrance examinations are not just about grueling work and burning midnight oil. One needs to prepare in a structured manner. Consistency in preparation is the key to success. It is better to study an average of 2 hours daily rather than put in bursts of work followed by weeks of layoff. The trick is to be able to balance this along with the other activities like school studies etc.

The exam is not about working hard but working smart. Most entrance examinations are objective in nature. This means that the bottom line is getting the correct answer, not how you get the answer. You could work systematically and arrive at the correct answer in a minute. However, you should also work smartly by elimination and substitution of answer choices and arrive at answer within a matter of a few seconds.

There is always something common about the people who finally make it to the hallowed corridors of the IIT/AIIMS. Not the least, is the belief in oneself. Half the battle is won if one believes in one’s success. This strong self-belief followed by sustained motivation over a period of 8-10 months and coupled with a structured preparatory schedule is the key to success.

•      Well laid plan

•      Absolute clarity of fundamentals

•      Make subject-wise action plan

•      Focus on quality then on quantity

•      Cultivate self discipline and consistency

•      Level up your speed and strike rate

•      Work hard and make frequent revisions

•      Evaluate yourself through a series of test

•      Be optimistic and get free from any tension and above all

•      The attitude to succeed at any cost.

How to be a winner and a champion?

Everyone loves to be a champion. But not everyone knows how to be one. In every endeavor we all say we’ll be THE NUMBER 1. But when asked how, we start looking here & there.

Most achievers will answer, “Luck has very little to do with it.” Being Number 1 takes much more than luck. It takes inspiration, persistence, and faith. Luck is a “nice-to-have.”

According to Tom Hopkins the 4 P’s to be a champion are :

1.   PRE-PLAN: Set goals. Devise strategies. Set your course of action, with specific tasks and corresponding deadlines. The only way you can reach what for you is the Number 1 position is to have a clear picture of that top slot and whatever path leads to it.

     Your plans must be realistic, though - achievable. Put your goals in writing to add commitment. Some planning takes a little time. It’s all right. A good plan is the first step up the ladder to Number 1.

2.  PRACTICE: Now, with a good scheme in hand, your next step is to work on it. How? Practice, practice, practice. No one becomes a champion swimmer overnight. Not even ten overnights! It takes months of serious training, dedicated practice.

     And what did Tom Hopkins say? “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.” In other words, there’s no sense practicing something that doesn’t work or that doesn’t lead you to success.

3.  PERFECT: This is something that goes beyond practice. This P is shooting for perfection. Some call it fine-tuning. After you’ve practiced long and hard to learn, understand, and rationalize the techniques and skills… after you’ve done it a hundred, a thousand times… after you’ve acquired “muscle memory” and you can actually do it with your eyes closed… it’s then time to cross the line to perfection. Do not stop practicing until the motion becomes flawless. Until you can do it flawlessly, every time.

     Imagine the magicians who get away with card tricks using slight-of-hand. They start learning a trick in slow motion, and practice until they can perform it faster and smoother. And when they can do it flawlessly with their eyes closed, every time, they move on to perfecting the move until they become confident enough to...

4.  PERFORM: This is the test. The moment that will tell you that you have succeeded. Everything you planned, practiced, and perfected, will find fulfillment during the performance. Show your mastery - your skill. Let other people marvel at your speciality. Make them appreciate your effort and excellence in the task you have chosen. 

I don’t know where my time goes?

I have problems like sudden desire to sharpen every pencil in the house, an  unheard of urge to clean your room, an offer to do your sister’s homework. Anything in other words, to avoid your own work. If you find yourself doing anything but your work, either take a break then and there or pull yourself together and get down to work. Self –discipline, too, is a learned habit that gets easier with practice. Remember, what you are seeking to achieve is not just time – but quality time.

The next step to overhaul your current routine is to identify that routine, in detail. My suggestion is to chart in 15 minute increments, how you spend every minute of every day right now. While a day or a two might be sufficient for some of you, I recommended you chart your activities for an entire week, including the weekend. This is especially important if like many people, you have huge pockets of time that seemingly disappear, but, in reality, are devoted to things like “resting” after you wake up, putting on make up or shaving, reading the paper, waiting for transportation or driving to and from school or work, etc. Could you use an extra hour or two a day either for studying or for fun ? Make better use of such “dead”  time and you may well find all the time you need.

The Success Time Table

Here we have given rough outline of a timetable to ensure that maximum utilization of time happens. You can modify this timetable to suit your requirement and convenience.

Quick revision in the class/Coaching Institute

• revise previous day’s class work when you reach and sit in class or before the teacher starts the class
•  revise today’s class work when teacher finishes class and leaves

Quick revision at home

• In the morning after waking up, exercising, or breakfast
• before going to school
• In the night before going to sleep
• Again next morning
• Sunday- revise this week’s class work
• monthly (first or last Sunday of month) monthly class work

Study and learn at home

•      do numerical questions on your own
•      Write and revise slowly to memorize difficult thingsAt home
•      regularly do relaxation/breathing
•      sleep during day also
•      focus on more and more practice through problem solving
•      take as many mock tests as you can.At school
•      form a group of students having same goals and objectives as you have. Try to interact with students who are more intelligent than you.
•      cooperate with other students (you are not competing only against them)During exam-days and during exams
•      do not eat just before exam
•      use relaxation techniques
•      read questions slowly, think, plan, and then write answers
•      sleep well - do not study too hard - do not get tired

General

•      read fast
•      take notes using “mind-map” technique
•      take breaks every 45 minutes while studying

How do you feel on the day of the exam? Why do you think you feel this way?

When you are faced with a difficult situation, it is only natural that you feel stressed. In fact, some amount of stress might even be beneficial - it spurs you to perform better. For example, runners, athletes, and yes, soldiers too use stress to perform beyond their natural physical and mental limits.

However, problems arise when stress becomes unmanageable. Unfortunately, that usually happens on the day of the exam! Your mind might cease to think clearly and goes blank. Ultimately, you end up making careless mistakes, or forgetting information.

Here are a few things you can do to keep stress in control on the day of the exam.

•     Do not think about the exam results, on the exam itself. Try to think pleasant thoughts about things you like such as your pet, chocolates, sweets, sports, or pleasant environments.

•     As far as possible, try not to discuss the exam with others. This helps to keep exam anxiety  under control.
•     Ensure your breathe properly and take long deep breaths. This helps your oxygen intake and relieves stress. During such exercises, clear all thoughts out of your mind and concentrate on your breathing.
•     If you like to pray, you might like to close your eyes and say a short prayer. This might given you extra self-confidence and peace of mind.

How to Benefit from Your Classmates’ Hard Work

I have seen classmates competing against one another. Obviously, if you view your classmates as your competitors, you will not help them and they will not help you. For example, you will not tell them about this book. The net result is that you do not benefit from the intelligence, innovativeness, smartness of your classmates.

So, I suggest that you should talk to a few students whom you like most and who share the same goal and objectives as you do. You can decide to go for walk together during lunch time. You can all discuss issues such as which is the best book, which is the best coaching, who is a good teacher. You can also discuss some specific subject related questions. You can all experiment and share the results and the knowledge. If you can all cooperate, the chances of success in competitions will increase for all of you. Thus all of you will be benefited.

Pros & Cons of Group Study

Learning in a group is much faster and effective. Try to form a group of your classmates who have the same goals as you have and are serious about achieving it. Share your knowledge and tricks with them and benefit yourselves from the learning of your classmates. 

Some of the study techniques you can adopt in group learning are

·   Using revision cards with a partner

·  Draw a diagram, make up a spider or patterned note card(s) or construct some linear key word notes.

· Revise the card(s) for 15 or 20 minutes (at most). Re-check that you understand and can recall all of the card(s) contents.

·   Teach your partner about the topic, allowing – and encouraging – questions about the topic. When a point is unclear, stop and explain it. Work through the topic until you have both completed it to your satisfaction or have agreed to meet again to continue.

Sharing topics with a partner
You can use one of your friends to revise with, by dividing up topics, revising them individually, and then meeting to discuss them. What happened in the discussion was that fresh questions and issues arose which led to both further revision and further enquiry. It worked for both of them.

Using your partner to fire questions

Work for a set period in your work room, eg 1/2 to 1 hour. Then ask your cooperative partner to fire questions at you about the topic. It will obviously help if the partner had some knowledge about the topic or a clear indication of what to ask. However, what you are seeking from this exercise is to keep flexible and alert to surprise questions and fresh angles are a bonus from this method.

Group learning can accelerate your learning because

·  Groups not only make many more suggestions than individuals, but also are quicker to reject incorrect suggestions.

· They reject the incorrect ideas, which escape the notice of individuals, working alone.

· Since by nature people are quicker to see flaws in others, group study proves more useful than individual study.

·  Gives you a fresh point of view.

·  Remember explaining a point to someone else makes it clearer to you and at times also gives you a fresh point of view.

The disadvantages of group discussion and working in a group: 

• Discussions very easily degenerate into trivial talk and gossip. This is more likely to happen when the participants are close friends.

Caution:

• For students involved in group learning there is a word of caution also. In a group, sometimes one of the students solves a problem and the others think that they also know it without solving it. Such practice can be harmful for a serious aspirant.

• Group study does not rule out the need of individual study.

• In fact, group study is most successful when individuals come fully prepared for group discussions.

By choosing 1 or 2 persons:

1.  From a group.

2. Selected members should be as serious as you are about success in IIT/PMT

3. Subject in charge: Distribute work chapter-wise (or topic-wise) to remember in the group whilst allotting work for yourself.

4.   After you have done your individual revision, fix a day and time to revise certain chapters of the subject you are to revise in your group.

5.   An appointed person explains the topic.

6.  Any other person in the group repeats what was explained. You will discover points one tends to forget. You will benefit by the way others answer a question.

7.   Repeat all the points together as a group.

8.  Jot down the summaries of the answer separately on a small sheet of paper.

9.  Back home write out full answers according to a summary guideline made in the group discussions.
10. The member who explains a particular topic :

      •   prepares the summaries... and

      •   Xeroxes these summaries making copies for others.

You Master a New Skill in Steps & Jumps

As you learn some new skill like riding a bicycle or a car or writing good essays, you master it in steps and jumps. There is no improvement for sometime (a few days in case of learning to ride a bicycle). Then suddenly, there is a large jump in learning. It shows that certain amount of work or effort on your part must be done before a jump in learning can happen. Again for sometime, there is no learning, no improvement. Then after sometime, again, there is a sudden jump in learning.

This shows that you do not accomplish similar amounts of learning everyday even though you spend the same amount of time everyday. So even if your learning progress is slow, keep studying day after day without getting discouraged. Finally, you will see a jump in your learning.